Prown, Jules David. Discovered Lands, Invented Pasts: Transforming Visions of the American West. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press and Yale University Art Gallery, 1992.
This book was produced to accompany an art exhibition of the same title shown at Yale and at the Gilcrease Institute of Tulsa, OK, and examines the history of the American West (and the gaps in the traditional history) through a beautiful catalogue of color plates and essays. Jules David Prown's introduction articulates three themes which guide the work: discovery, erasure, and invention. William Cronon examines "landscapes of frontier change," and complicates the term "West," as he uses landscape paintings of New York and Massachusetts as well as discussion of the Hudson River school artists to illustrate that the history of the American West is not a regional story but a national one. Brian Dippie offers an insightful look at the paradoxical treatment of the Native American in history and art, noting that the native peoples were often depicted both as "noble savages" and as brutal, violent, and dangerous. His essay points out the complex and contradictory relationship that white America has had both mythically and historically with Native Americans. Susan Prendergast Schoelwer, in what may be the most interesting chapter in the volume, examines often overlooked issues of gender in the West and the role of women, both white and non-white, during the era of trapping. Howard Lamar's essay looks to more contemporary Western art. The book also features essays by Nancy Anderson and Martha Sandweiss. [K. Smith]